Automatic remote-controlled curtain

ABSTRACT

An automatic remote-controlled curtain including an actuating device and a control device that controls the actuating device, and which is characterized in that: two ends of an already existent pull cord of a curtain are respectively joined to a gear pull cord of the actuating device with clasps, and the gear pull cord is fitted on a transmission gear of one end of an electric motor. The control device is connected to another end of the electric motor, and control members, including an automatic positioning control member, a temperature control member and a brightness control member are configured within the control device. An external remote control controls a receiver that is further configured on the control device. The aforesaid configuration provides motor-driven remote control, temperature control and light control to an already existent curtain having a sliding mechanism, thereby achieving accurate positioning of curtains and reducing reinstallation costs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an improved structure for an automaticremote-controlled curtain, and more particularly to a structure that canbe connected to a manually pulled sideward or vertical curtainstructure, thereby achieving objective of automatic or electricremote-control opening and closing of a curtain.

(b) Description of the Prior Art

According to a common saying: “The window is the soul of the house, thecurtain is the spirit of the window.” Allowing for natural lighting isone function of the window. However, heat carried by sunlight directlyshining into the home is often unbearable to persons, thus, curtainsfitted to the windows enable blocking or adjusting direct irradiationfrom rays of light. Furthermore, a set of appropriately fitted curtainscan not only block sunlight from entering the home, moreover, whennecessary, the curtains can also provide privacy to a person. Inaddition, if a person desires to achieve better heat retention orsoundproofing effectiveness of a room, thick or lined curtains caneffectively maintain the temperature of the room and absorb noise.Curtains not only provide a practical function, but can also be regardedas an embellishment to the home, particularly when matched withdecorative material used for covering sofas and cushions, thereby bettersetting off consistency in the style of the home. Conventional curtaintypes include sideward pull curtains, vertical window blinds, verticalrolling blinds and horizontal window blinds. Wherein area needed for thesideward opening pull curtain is relatively large, and material, designand color, and manufactured styles come in a multitude of variations.Therefore, curtains can not only achieve objective of reducingtemperature of the room, moreover, they can embellish the living spaceof a room, in addition to having functionality and eye appeal. Themajority of conventional sideward pull curtains are manually operated,and, in order to enhance convenience of use, electric remote-controlledsideward opening and closing pull curtains have appeared on the market,as depicted in FIG. 1, wherein pulleys a2 are respectively mounted ontwo ends of a curtain track a1 of an already existent curtain a.Moreover, a pull cord a3 is fitted on the pulleys a2. An elastic devicea4 is affixed to the pulley a2 of one end of the curtain track a1, whichenables the pull cord a3 to maintain a tight state when in use. Thepulley a2 of the other end of the curtain track a1 is connected to atransmission shaft of an electric motor a5, and a control device a6controls forward and reverse rotation of the electric motor a5, therebyachieving functionality that realizes sideward opening and closing ofcurtains a7. However, when in use, such a configuration is generallyunable to achieve accurate positioning of the curtains a7, and mayresult in damage to structural assembly of the electric remote controldevice. Moreover, when installing, the complete curtain track a1assembly is necessarily replaced, causing great inconvenience. Thereforehave the necessity to take into the improvement. Hence, there is a needfor improvement in prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In light of the aforementioned shortcomings of a conventionalconfiguration, the inventor of the present invention, having accumulatedyears of experience in related arts, attentively and circumspectlycarried out extensive study and exploration to ultimately design acompletely new structure for an automatic remote-controlled curtain.

A primary objective of the present invention is to provide an automaticremote control device that can be installed within a slide groove of analready existent curtain, thereby providing convenience of use andinstallation, and substantially reducing cost of installation. Moreover,the remote control device provides an accurate positioning method thatfacilitates operating the curtain.

A second objective of the present invention is to provide the automaticremote device that automatically regulates degree of opening and closingof the curtains in response to temperature and light brightness, therebyincreasing functionality of the already existent curtain.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, the automaticremote-controlled curtain of the present invention is primarilystructured to comprise an actuating device and a control device thatcontrols the actuating device. The actuating device comprises anelectric motor and a gear pull cord, and the control device comprisescontrol members, including an automatic positioning control member, atemperature control member and a brightness control member. An externalremote control controls a receiver that is further configured on thecontrol device. Two ends of an already existent pull cord of the curtainare respectively joined to the gear pull cord within the actuatingdevice with clasps, and the gear pull cord is fitted on a transmissiongear of one end of the electric motor of the actuating device, therebyproviding a one-speed gear mechanism between the transmission gear andthe electric motor, and which is used to regulate the rotating speed ofthe electric motor. The control device is configured to another end ofthe electric motor, and the automatic positioning control member is usedto fix positioning of the curtains.

According to the aforementioned configuration, the present invention canbe installed on terminal ends of the pull cord of the already existentand installed curtain, thereby providing a shortcut to upgrading thetraditional curtain not having a remote control function, and enablingextremely simple installation. The gear pull cord within the automaticremote control device is simply joined to the already existent pull cordwith the clasps, and travel distance appropriately adjusted, therebyrealizing simple and convenient installation, and savings ininstallation cost.

The present invention uses the automatic positioning control member, anda travel detector that detects distance traveled by each turn of theelectric motor. Positioning principle is realized by the travel detectordetecting two signals on each turn of the electric motor, and the twosignals are used as a count base. The electric motor turns 2000 to 2400times per minute, reduction rate of the decelerator mechanism is 60, andexternal diameter of the transmission gear is 1 cm. Assuming distance totravel in one minute is one meter, then the transmission gear needs torotate 100 times, and, the electric motor thus rotates 100 multiplied by60 times, that is, 6000 times, and the travel detector receives 12000signals. Therefore, each time a signal is received, the curtain travelsa distance equal to 1000 mm divided by 12000 signals, that is, adistance of 0.083 mm. In other words, after the user has first set themaximum distance the curtains can travel by completely opening andcompletely closing the curtains, then the corresponding count value atany position during course of opening or closing the curtains can becalculated, and the preset count values can be stored in the controldevice, thereby achieving objective of accurate positioning of theremote-controlled curtains at any preset positions. Moreover, thepresent invention can function in conjunction with the temperaturecontrol member and the brightness control member receiving signals,wherewith automatic adjusting of degree of opening or closing of thecurtains can be realized, thereby providing the already existent curtainwith increased functionality.

To enable a further understanding of said objectives and thetechnological methods of the invention herein, brief description of thedrawings is provided below followed by detailed description of thepreferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an elevational view of a conventional curtain.

FIG. 2 shows a structural elevational view according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 shows an exploded schematic view of a clasp and an alreadyexistent pull cord and a gear pull cord according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of the curtain pull cord connected to anelectric motor according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an assembled schematic view of the electric motor and acontrol device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a control flow chart according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 2, which shows an automatic remote-controlled curtainof the present invention primarily comprising an actuating device 10directly joined to an already existent curtain 2, and a control device20, which controls actuation of the actuating device 10, connected toone side of the actuating device 10. Wherein:

the actuating device 10, as depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4, comprises anelectric motor 11 and a gear pull cord 12, two ends of which arerespectively connected to two ends of a pull cord 2 a of the alreadyexistent curtain 2 by means of clasps 13. Each of the clasps 13 comprisea top cover 13 a and a bottom cover 13 b, and indentations 13 a 1, 13 b1 are defined in interiors of the top cover 13 a and the bottom cover 13b respectively, which provide for fixing the already existent curtainpull cords 2 a and the gear pull cord 12 therein. Moreover, a pluralityof equidistant protruding teeth 12 a are provided on the gear pull cord12. The electric motor 11 is a direct current motor, forward and reverserotation of which can be rapidly actualized. Furthermore, a powertransducer 11 a is connected to a rear end of the direct current motor11, and the power transducer 11 a is plugged directly into a powersupply with a plug 11 a 1. A decelerator mechanism 11 b is disposed on afront end of the electric motor 11, and used to regulate the rotatingspeed of the electric motor 11. Interior of the decelerator mechanism 11b is structured to comprise a plurality of decelerating gears 11 b 1,and a transmission gear 11 b 2 further outwardly extends from thedecelerator mechanism 11 b;

the control device 20 comprises an automatic positioning control member21, a temperature control member 22 and a brightness control member 23.An external remote control 25 controls a receiver 24 that is furtherconfigured in the control device 20. The remote control 25 is aninfrared transmitter or a radio frequency transmitter. The correspondingreceiver 24 is an infrared receiver or a radio frequency receiver.Moreover, an LED (light-emitting diode) display device 24 a is installedin the receiver 24, and used to indicate reception or not of signals.The automatic positioning control member 21 is configured to the rearend of the electric motor 11. Referring to FIG. 5, the automaticpositioning control member 21 comprises a microcomputer control device21 a, a travel detector 21 b and a sensor 21 c. The temperature controlmember 22 and the brightness control member 23 are connected to theelectric motor 11, thereby enabling the present invention to regulatedegree of opening and closing of the curtain in response to temperatureand light brightness. An automatic recognition member 26 is furtherconfigured within the control device 20. When a plurality ofremote-controlled curtains are fitted, the same remote control 25 can beused to control the curtains without causing mutual interference of thesignals, which would otherwise result in simultaneous, opening orclosing of the plurality of curtains. The user needs only to set theremote control before use or the automatic recognition member 26 caneffectuate automatic setting, thereby preventing interference when twofamily members are simultaneously operating the remote-controlledcurtains.

According to the aforementioned structure, two ends of the alreadyexistent pull cord 2 a of the curtain 2 are respectively joined to thegear pull cord 12 of the actuating device 10 with the clasps 13, and thegear pull cord 12 is then directly fitted on the transmission gear 11 b2 of one end of the electric motor 11 of the actuating device 10.Referring to FIG. 6, which shows a control flow chart of the presentinvention that utilizes an external remote control or uses temperatureand light brightness control members to automatically controlpositioning of the curtains.

In conclusion, the automatic remote-controlled curtain of the presentinvention can be directly installed on an already existent curtainstructure, thereby providing convenience of installation and use, andsubstantially reducing cost of installation. Moreover, the presentinvention provides a positioning method that facilitates operation ofthe curtains. Furthermore, the present invention also includesadditional temperature and brightness automatic control members, whichautomatically adjust degree of opening and closing of the curtains inresponse to the temperature and light brightness, thereby increasingfunctionality of the already existent curtain. Practicability andadvancement of the present invention clearly comply with essentialelements as required for a new patent application. Accordingly, a newpatent application is proposed herein.

It is of course to be understood that the embodiments described hereinare merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and that awide variety of modifications thereto may be effected by persons skilledin the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the inventionas set forth in the following claims.

1. An automatic remote-controlled curtain comprising an actuating deviceand a control device that controls the actuating device, andcharacterized in that: two ends of an already existent pull cord of acurtain are respectively joined to a gear pull cord of the actuatingdevice with clasps, and the gear pull cord is fitted on a transmissiongear of one end of an electric motor; the control device is configuredto another end of the electric motor, control members, including anautomatic positioning control member, a temperature control member and abrightness control member are configured within the control device, andan external remote control controls a receiver that is furtherconfigured on the control device.
 2. The automatic remote-controlledcurtain as described in claim 1, wherein each of the clasps comprise atop cover and a bottom cover, and indentations are respectively definedin interiors of the top cover and the bottom cover, which provide forfixing the already existent curtain pull cords and the gear pull cordtherein.
 3. The automatic remote-controlled curtain as described inclaim 1, wherein a plurality of equidistant protruding teeth areprovided on the gear pull cord.
 4. The automatic remote-controlledcurtain as described in claim 1, wherein the electric motor is a directcurrent motor, a power transducer is connected to a rear end of thedirect current motor, and the power transducer is plugged directly intoa power supply with a plug, moreover, a decelerator mechanism isconfigured on a front end of the electric motor.
 5. The automaticremote-controlled curtain as described in claim 4, wherein thedecelerator mechanism is structured to comprise a plurality ofdecelerating gears, and a transmission gear further outwardly extendsfrom the decelerator mechanism.
 6. The automatic remote-controlledcurtain as described in claim 1, wherein the external remote control isan infrared transmitter, and the corresponding receiver is an infraredreceiver, moreover, an LED (light-emitting diode) display device isinstalled in the receiver.
 7. The automatic remote-controlled curtain asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the external remote control is a radiofrequency transmitter, and the corresponding receiver is a radiofrequency receiver, moreover, the LED (light-emitting diode) displaydevice is installed in the receiver.
 8. The automatic remote-controlledcurtain as described in claim 1, wherein the automatic positioningcontrol member is configured to the rear end of the electric motor, andcomprises a microcomputer control device, a travel detector and asensor.
 9. The automatic remote-controlled curtain as described in claim1, wherein an automatic recognition member is configured within thecontrol device.